July
Welcome to the monthly newsletter that brings you creative solutions for connecting parks, communities, young people, and nature. We welcome your feedback.
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Central to the National Park Service mission is helping the next generation of stewards develop personal connections to the environment. But as people face the challenges of modern life, their knowledge of nature is declining substantially. 
 
"When a painter in France used to look at a landscape, she would see seventy different greens, not just 'green.'  When a farmer looked at clouds, he'd know what weather was coming. Over time, our landscape literacy has been lost," says San Francisco-based artist, historian and urban strategist, Jeannene Przblyski.
 
So, how do we re-connect communities and young people to nature when they've become less knowledgeable about those landscapes?  One answer is creative interpretation through art.
GGNRA
Lands End

At the westernmost edge of San Francisco, the distinctive landscape of Lands End frames amazing views of the Golden Gate Bridge and contains a history of dramatic shipwrecks.
 
Jeannene Przblyski created "Comings and Goings", an interpretive podcast for Lands End- a "time traveling project" - investigating the histories of habitation and conquest, militarization and recreation, and geological and ecological change along the  newly-restored scenic coastal trail within Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
 
Podcasts provide an ideal way for visitors to experience a landscape, says Przblyski, because they can be started and stopped: "Out in the landscape, you want them to take their headphones off sometimes. All of my work is conceived of as a way to get people involved in a particular place."
 
The podcast brings visitors back through time, helping them see residual history in the landscape. For instance: years ago, the Army planted non-native trees on Lands End, but not across the water in Marin County-so a glimpse of the Marin  side shows what Lands End would have looked like without human intervention. The podcast also highlights phenomena such as Lands End's placement along a major bird migratory route. Przblyski adds, "My hope is you'll learn something about the place, but also develop skills for when you're in other places. You'll begin seeing traces of the past because you're looking more acutely than before." For more information on "Comings and Goings", contact Jeannene Przblyski or Charles Tracy.
BOHI
Boston Harbor Islands Teri Rueb
Today, Spectacle Island, the hub of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area is a peaceful green park with gently-sculpted landforms, just a 15 minute ferry ride from the city. But beneath the surface are rich and diverse layers of landscape history: a Native American settlement, an early 20th century neighborhood, and even a garbage dump and Superfund site. Artist Teri Rueb chronicled its history and dramatic transformation with an audio project called "Core Sample" commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.
 
Rueb developed a "GPS-based sound installation" for the island, in which GPS activates the playback of sound based on the location of visitors in the landscape, so that sounds played automatically as one walked along the island. The sounds were also organized according to elevation, so that visitors--using a special radio and headphones--could hear a sonic mix of natural and processed sounds, including interviews with former residents, landfill experts, and horticulturalists related to different topographical layers of the island's history.
 
Rueb says, "I wanted to bring people into a physical experience with the landscape itself and its past. Through that, I sought to embrace the hopefulness of what this island represents, and our collective role in having been part of its difficult past." For more information on "Core Sample", contact
Port Gamble
 
Brenda Smith Storytelling through art has always been a part of the S'Klallam tradition. Outdoor art, such as totems, have a history that goes back before Euro-American contact. Today this storytelling tradition is leading a return to healthier lifestyles for the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe in Washington.
 
In recent years, due to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, tribe members have faced an obesity problem. In response, they partnered with the National Park Service to develop a plan for new trails on their reservation. Says Ron Charles, chairman of the plan's advisory committee, "Our forefathers were on the move--and lived healthier lives because of it. The NPS Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance program helped us create a trail system that will go a long way in bringing back that tradition of exercise and activity."
Lands End
 
The plan outlined an integrated trail system. The Tribe has already received three grants totaling over $1,000,000 to begin implementation, including funds from the NPS Challenge Cost Share Program to construct a special totem pole entrance to the one-mile fitness loop.

Resident tribal carvers (above right, Brenda Smith, left, Joe Ives) will create an entranceway entitled, "Watchman Welcome Pole". Two watchmen with copper breast plates and walking sticks reflect S'Klallam art and culture, identifying the Fitness Trail as a place for walking and fitness activities.  Construction is scheduled to begin this summer. For more information on the Port Gamble S'Kallam Trail System, contact Susan Rosebrough.
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Want to learn more about using storytelling to encourage conservation? Check out the National Park Service's collection of helpful publications and especially the NPS Conservation Study Institute's publications on Cane River and Delaware & Lehigh Heritage Corridors The Community Toolbox, created by the Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program, has a section on Art Projects.

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Could your project benefit from 1-2 years' staff time from a National Park Service specialist? If you're working on restoring a river, building a community trail, or making an urban park flourish, we'd love to talk with you about ways we could work together. Please call or email your regional representative today. The next program application deadline is August 1, 2008.

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Challenge Cost Share Program|Partnership Wild and Scenic Rivers
Federal Lands to Parks|
Hydropower Relicensing Program|National Trails System
Urban Park and Recreation Recovery | Land and Water Conservation Fund
Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program

The Update informs Department of the Interior staff, organizational partners, and friends about the program successes and activities of the National Park Service Conservation and Outdoor Recreation Programs. For more details, please contact the staff person involved with each project.

This e-newsletter may be copied or redirected.  Our staff would be pleased to assist your editor in adapting each story for your publication; for more information, please call (202) 354-6918 or e-mail [email protected] . Images courtesy National Park Service.